By Hezne Abu Hasan

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You jump off a cliff in the gravity-defying act of bungee jumping, with the New Zealand air brushing your cheeks, while screaming at the top of your lungs, “YOLO!”

Seemingly harmless, it pumps the blood in a bout of adrenaline rush. But what about…

Gambling your life savings in a card game, knowing you’ll get it back in three-folds because you’ve mastered the game and the guy opposite the table looks like he doesn’t even know what day it is. You place your winning cards on the table and yell, “YOLO!”

A smile crept on the face of the guy you thought was clueless, and he yelled, “YOLO? You lose!” because his cards trumped your so-called winning cards. And you are in shambles, because that was all the money you had.

Or, what if the game had gone the way you thought it would play out? Your cards were the actual winning cards. As you shuffle your winnings and bid your poor opponent goodbye, you start spending the money in your head. You’ll buy yourself that new car you’ve been eyeing. You’ll renovate the kitchen and replace everything in it because your wife loves to cook. You’ll take your daughter out of that dingy school and put her in a better school. You’ll invest the rest in stocks.

Years pass and you’ve been driving yourself, your family and your friends in that car. To work, to school, to harmless places. Your wife cooks countless hearty meals in that kitchen and the food nourishes your soul day in and day out. Your daughter is getting the education she deserves and one day she will graduate top of her class and serve the community. Your investment was a smart one and has bloomed into more investments.

But, have you forgotten how all this came about? How have you gotten the provisions to get this life? Does it surprise you when one day your car is totaled in an accident, your daughter succumbs to peer pressure and does what others are doing, your investments fail you and your wife leaves you?

If His mercy could keep your bungee-jumping rope intact without snapping in half and snapping your neck in the process, it is also in His mercy and infinite wisdom that He could provide and withdraw the ills you’ve spread from winning that card game.

Sins breed bigger sins. Only Allah, the Most Merciful, has the power to stop the sin from breeding, because any more, and your head will get too big and you can’t drop down in prostration to Him. It’s one thing to provide for yourself from the wrong sources, but it is another to provide for your family.

YOLO. You Only Live Once. Yes, you only live once. In this life. But then, you live again in a more lasting life, with your activities from the temporary life carried into the eternal life, and that will determine the kind of abode you shall have. Let’s make it a good one.

AlKauthar Institute